Looking to cut your food costs? Consider these “rules” for saving money on food. So, you wanna save some money on groceries, do ya? Well, lucky for you, it’s really not that difficult. You don’t need to clip coupons — though they can help the right situation — and you don’t need to worry that you’ll […]

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Craving something fresh during these last weeks of winter? Try one of these delicious salads! Who says that winter needs to be gray and dreary? When you consider some of the fruits and vegetables that are plentiful and often on sale in winter, there’s no need to be sad. You can still eat the rainbow […]

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You know how much I love a good Pantry Challenge, right? Well, a few weeks ago Becky Worley, a reporter for Good Morning America, contacted me and asked me to advise her on how to have a successful pantry challenge. I flew up to her home in Oakland last week where we raided her cupboard and […]

Summer 2013 Pantry Challenge: Day 1

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Today was the first day of our Pantry Challenge. Since I had already made a meal plan, it wasn’t difficult to know what we were eating. The kids made their breakfast (waffles and sausages) while I was at the gym and hubs and another child were at the hockey rink. When I got home, I made my favorite Skillet Eggs.

Lunch was sandwiches with leftover lunch meat that my dad had brought with him on Friday. I had leftover fish and rice from Friday night as well. Honestly? It wasn’t a very fun lunch.

For dinner, I made a lasagna and salad. I had roasted vegetables earlier last week and blended them into a sauce. I froze half and that’s what I used for the lasagna along with a pound of ground pork I found in the kitchen freezer. Total rescue thanks to the inventory.

The salad was a success, too. My dad had left a head of iceberg, not something we normally buy. I chopped it up and topped it with half a can of garbanzo beans, cherry tomatoes, sliced zucchini, black olives, and romano cheese. I used a leftover Lemon Basil Vinaigrette from the other night, too.

Since lasagna is pretty heavy on the carbs, I decided not to bake bread. I’m running low on flour already, so I figure we’ll wait until we really need a bread side dish.

Cleaning out the fridge and making good cheap eats! That’s the name of the game, at least this week.

Before i found your site I just cooked food for my family. Now I make meals & a lot from scratch. I never woould have thought to do a pantry challenge. They are amazing! You have taught me a lot thru your site & recipes. That’s your gift!!!

Your first day sounded like perfection! Our first day yesterday was easy. Our breakfasts and lunches are always fend-for-yourself(breakfasts: cereal, yogurt, muffins, fruit, turkey sausage, bagels, toast, etc; lunch: sandwiches, salads, leftovers!, hummus w/pita or veggies, pasta–i often make extra to have it already in fridge- wi/sauce, etc). And we had so many leftovers that when we got home from church at 4:30pm, I put out a leftovers buffet. We still have a bit left, but it made a huge dent in the containers in the fridge. Today I’ve been inventorying the freezer and cleaning out/inventorying the cupboards. Almost done, tackling the last cupboard now. And then I’ll meal plan, though I figured out tonight’s dinner already. It’s a little depressing tossing out extremely old items buried in the back, things I know won’t be any good regardless of real expiration dates(some stuff expired 5 years ago, but would have worked a year or two ago, but not anymore). But I need to get through, get it all organized, and start using everything up. Feeling very hopeful that I won’t have to overspend at all this month or even in September, when we are back from a month away. yay!. Now back to work after my blog break.

So I just finished cleaning out and reorganizing the pantry cupboards. Oy. Too many ancient things to toss. what a waste. But now it’s all organized and lists have been made. And I can be a better steward of the food we have and of our $$. Yay! Feels so good. This pantry challenge was the push I needed to clean out. Thanks!

I’m impressed with your creativity in menu planning and meal making for this first day! I’ve stayed close to home and had a BLT on whole grain bread that was in the freezer (the 4 slices of bacon were there also) – dinner is the other half of the slow-cooked chicken breast with broccoli from the crisper drawer (either I eat it or it goes bad and stinks up everything)… I am going to Walmart tomorrow and will buy milk and tomatoes on the vine. I’ve placed my monthly order for groceries (they’re delivered so I won’t buy anything else except for milk and eggs) – I ordered all fruit and veggies but not a lot of everything – just enough to get me through two weeks – then I’ll simply make do or use the rest of this month’s grocery money on any thing else I need. I had to buy the fresh Jersey blueberries at $1 box – normally run 2.99 each. I try to do a major shopping once a month – I stock up on cat food, litter, organic free range eggs (although I’m hoping that my daughter will share their wealth later this month from their 6 chickens), also their gardens will begin to burst forth and so Gramma will get some of the overflow. Crossing my fingers and enjoying this challenge – I told Heather that I would continue it with her (she might need to continue it until mid-September, which would be good for me as I have two vacations to pay for – not much but the grocery savings will help a lot. Good luck – the waffles look great – I had iced coffee and a Ken’s Buckwheat berry waffle with squished raspeberries, strawberries and blueberries.

I’m impressed that you do only one major shopping a month! And a little envious of your daughter passing on her abundance! We have no one that can share with us. I will be taking a break all of August and then working through lots of food we have stashed away through Sept. We might have to exchange emails or something to keep tabs on each other.

I find that if I walk into a supermarket, even with a list, I walk out spending over two times what I should have – so I “invest” in my savings (and sanity) by using our shop-at-home feature of our closest supermarket. They charge 6.95 to deliver. One of the reasons I do a once a month is that there is a $10 charge for the “in-store shoppers” who go around and pick up my order. BUT, if you buy over $100 they drop the charge and its only the 6.95 delivery fee. It covers a number of household, personal and grocery items. I use paper plates for the cats dishes – they are tossable and if I get them on sale, its well worth the money not to have to scrap and wash kitty dishes twice a day. There was also a sale on blueberries fresh from Jersey 6/6.99 and that I couldn’t pass up. So you see, it sounds good but there were items that weren’t on my master list, but I noticed either on their website or in their on-line sale brochure. I agree we’ll have to exchange emails after the challenge is over.

Also found a stash of Crystal Light Raspberry-Lemonade mix. Found 6 tubes of 8 containers in each. These are made up in quarts which are perfect for me since I don’t them at suggested strength so I dilute them – rather than 32 oz water, I make them in an old orange juice container and its 52 oz – with ice cubes and a thin slice of lemon in each glass, its so cooling and delish. I’ve found so much in cleaning up the pantry and assorted stashes of cans, containers, bottles and packets!

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